R.I. version of Obamacare makes debut, opens call center

PROVIDENCE — After months of working quietly behind the scenes, Rhode Island’s health benefits exchange made its public debut Monday, announcing its new name, logo and the opening of a call center.The...

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Felice J. Freyer
Posted Jul. 16, 2013 @ 12:01 am

PROVIDENCE — After months of working quietly behind the scenes, Rhode Island’s health benefits exchange made its public debut Monday, announcing its new name, logo and the opening of a call center.

The exchange — the marketplace where individuals and small businesses will shop for health insurance — now goes by the name HealthSource RI. Its logo depicts a white wave cresting over blue and green semicircles. The call center at 70 Royal Little Drive will be run by Connextions, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

“This room is going to be very, very important to the Affordable Care Act in Rhode Island,” said Governor Chafee at a ceremony Monday at the call center, where starting Sept. 1 some 50 to 75 people will work by phone or in person to help Rhode Islanders find and choose health insurance plans.

“In Rhode Island, we are not having a debate about what to do, whether to do it — we are having debates about how to do it best,” said exchange director Christine C. Ferguson. “We’re going to have an amazing story to tell a year from now.”

Monday’s speeches and ribbon-cutting marked the beginning of a push to inform the public about changes in health insurance coming next year under the federal health care overhaul. A survey in the spring found that 4 out of 5 Rhode Islanders had never heard of the exchange, and awareness was low even among physicians and small-business owners.

Yet the willing participation of businesses with 50 or fewer employees is critical to the exchange’s success; businesses this small are exempt from the requirement to offer coverage that takes effect in 2015, but they are the only businesses allowed to use the exchange.

Additionally, people who have been uninsured or who buy insurance on their own will shop at HealthSource RI. A total of 70,000 to 100,000 Rhode Islanders are expected to use the exchange over the next 18 months, Ferguson said.

A “community outreach tour” starts Wednesday, with plans to hold meetings in each of the state’s 39 cities and towns before Oct. 1, the day enrollment begins. An advertising campaign will start after Labor Day.

The exchange will offer a choice of 12 plans for individuals and 16 for small businesses. But one key question — how much each plan will cost — won’t be answered until later this month, said exchange spokesman Ian Lang.

Public education isn’t the exchange’s only challenge. It has high ambitions for the technology that powers it. Ferguson acknowledged that software development was a challenge but insisted the exchange will be ready to start enrollment by Oct. 1, even if it means resorting to paper-and-pen work-arounds.

Rhode Island is one of 15 states, plus Washington, D.C., that are building their own exchanges rather than leaving the task to the federal government.

“Rhode Island is a full lap ahead of every other state,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at Monday’s announcement. “We can show the rest of the country what a fair and transparent marketplace looks like.”

HealthSource RI has a website (www.healthsourceri.com), a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/HealthSourceRI) and a Twitter feed (@HealthSourceRI).